The following is an excerpt from my book The Fearless Factor. Each week, I’ll be posting on these excerpts on the blog, so share with me your comments or your experiences.

Fear is a fundamental emotion, natural as breathing, but frequently it ruins our life because we don’t deal with it.  The image to the left includes the 5 Principles of Fear which includes Loss,Abandonment, Rejection, Humiliation and Failure. On the other side of Failure is Success.

Fear is one of the most powerful motivating forces in the human experience.  It is the clarion call; it signals that there is something you need to change in order to live a completely fulfilled life.  Honoring this feeling is the greatest gift you can give yourself.

Fear is also one of the strongest words in our emotional language.  We would rather say we are anxious, worried or nervous, than say outright that we are afraid.  Someone the word ‘fear’ connotes weakness or intense vulnerability so we prefer to cloak it in ambiguous language like “I don’t fell like it,”  ”it doesn’t work for me,” or “I’m too busy, too tired, or too stressed.”  Fear leads to anger, inappropriate behavior, offensive language, or complete rejection.  We find tons of excuses to avoid ‘feeling’ the fear because we all know that fear is alarming, abrasive, unpleasant and painful.

Susan Jeffers, the author of ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’ says “fear is essentially a lack of belief in your ability to handle whatever comes your way.”  It is a fundamental lack of trust in you.

But fear is also a basic fact of nature.  Whenever you enter unfamiliar territory, you experience it. That vast unknown is where you choose not to go, because you have no idea what is waiting for you, or you can’t stand the place between knowing and not knowing.  Fear is the abyss of uncertainty that draws you away from making decisions that influence your life in a positive manner; it undermines who you want to be.

Next: Why we ignore fear!

If you can’t wait to read the entire Fearless Factor book …go to The Fearless Factor website